Best pawn shop at which to buy an electric guitar

Affordable Jewelry & Pawn

3616 Hillsborough Road, Durham

(919) 382-8021

The storied days of finding a vintage Fender or Gibson guitar for an insanely low price at some mom-and-pop pawn shop are long gone. (Thanks to eBay for clueing in the formerly clueless.) Some good deals can be found at chain pawn shops, but the selection is often hit or (mostly) miss. Not so at Affordable Jewelry & Pawn, next to Strawbridge Studios—behind that big Cook-Out. Owner Darrell Hutson says the store invests a little more in buying the good stuff, so there's always a nice selection of reasonably priced Stratocasters, Telecasters, and Martin acoustics on the wall. On the cheap side, gift-shopping parents will appreciate the ever-present row of hundred-dollar pointy Ibanezes, perfect for that budding teenage metalhead in your house.

(Sorry, no information is currently available for other years in this same award category.)